Only up to Ether Mines here (doing all side quests I can) but I'll say that the story is leap and bounds better than XCX. Shulk, Reyn and Sharla are much more engaging than whoever (actually can't remember anyone) from XCX.

If the main part of the game you like is the story, I highly recommend Xenogears which is a much more plot focused game than Xenoblade.

In fact, the story of Xenoblade Chronicles is a actually cut and paste of certain plot threads from Xenogears reimagined to fit the context of the worlds of Bionis and Mechonis. It was mostly stripped down and used for the purpose of navigating players through the world and gameplay, while Xenogears is more the opposite approach with the world existing to introduce the story, characters, and history of Takahashi’s world.

While the game doesn’t feature anything like colony 6, or a massive side quest system, the main story and side stories are far more fleshed out, with far more development toward: characters, factions, nations, politics, cultures, and history. The setting is more urbanized, with more cities and much more of the game taking place within the cities, and you have things like a hub (sand ship, which is kind of like an airship from other RPGs, except larger). While Xenoblade has some conspiracy angles, Xenogears takes it to levels that might be unparalleled in the video game industry: it’s kind of a mash-up of things along the lines of Cold War politics, various science fiction plots, Gnostic religions, and even quantum mechanics. Villains are also a much bigger deal in Xenogears, with most having considerably more complex motivations and more developed back stories.

It’s an older game, so feels like an RPG of its time in terms of gameplay: but its narrative driven story is the Holy Grail of RPG plots and the masterpiece of Tetsuya Takahashi’s lifework.

Yeah I much prefer Xenoblade 1's cast too, much more charismatic and likable. You've got a lot of awesome stuff ahead of you, enjoy! :)

You're misinterpreting. I don't really feel the need to play even the version I have again being that I've done so twice already, which is plenty for such a lengthy adventure. It's more that playing it for the first time back in 2011 was such a wonderfully memorable experience for me and I was genuinely wondering how it was for others doing so now.

When the Mechon... 

I did play and really enjoy Xenogears back in PS1 days. Maybe I should get back to it one of these days.

Anybody play the expansion yet?

One thing to take into account is how far you got the first time you played, there are three bits to watch out for, IMO.

There are three moments to watch out for:

1. The introduction of Id - which is where the story really begins to go beyond anything that an RPG had done before.

2. Tower of Babel - there's a really poorly designed platforming part that takes patience.

3. Disk 2 - the framework of the game changes up, the first time played can be really jarring; but I never found it jarring on replays, and it's the most interesting part of the plot.

It's also worth noting that Xenogears is a bit of an odd one, kind of like a Hitchcock or Fincher film, where it might seem like there's a bunch of random filler type things, but then you get to a point where you realize they all connect. And on replays, it's a different sort of experience, because you can examine it all with a more educated eye, and you find the themes and threads connect in a deeper way than you might have even considered during those "a-ha!" moments the first time through.

Where did you get this?

The beach outfits?  You get them from doing to time attack battles in the orange glowy things.